The present invention relates generally to flagpoles and specifically to a flagpole system for providing a half-mast display of the flag.
The display of the flag of one's country is a popular way to express patriotic feelings. A common way of displaying a flag uses a freestanding vertical flagpole, for example, having a halyard system allowing the flag to be raised and lowered, for example, at dawn and dusk.
A popular alternative to a freestanding vertical flagpole is a shortened flagpole that may be mounted on a vertical surface of a building wall or the like to extend upward at an angle. These wall-mounted flagpoles largely eliminate the complexity of a halyard system for raising and lowering the flag and may simply use clips attached in separation on the flagpole itself and that may be attached to loops or grommets in the flag. The fixed separation of the clips on such flagpoles hold the flag open without the need for the weight of the halyard or other weighting system. Often, these clips are mounted to the flagpole to rotate about the flagpole thereby preventing the flag from winding itself around the flagpole in the wind.
Often it is desired to fly a flag at “half-mast” as a symbol of respect or mourning. This symbolic gesture presupposes a flag mounted on a freestanding vertical flagpole and is difficult to implement on an angled flagpole attached to a building, both because of the reduced length of such a flagpole and because of the fixed mounting clips which may provide only a single mounting location.